Colin Kaepernick Reveals the Specific Police Shooting That Led Him to Kneel

"The discussion happened shortly after the execution of Mario Woods," the out-of-work QB said.

Published August 20, 2019•Updated on August 20, 2019 at 3:59 pm

Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images, File

Free-agent quarterback Colin Kaepernick, about to enter a third consecutive autumn of NFL unemployment, revealed that a specific police shooting led to his activism.

In an interview with online magazine Paper, Kaepernick said his protests were a response to a deadly December 2015 confrontation between San Francisco police officers and Mario Woods, 26, in the city's Bayview neighborhood.

Woods, a suspect in a stabbing attack, died after being shot 20 times after he allegedly refused police orders to drop his knife. Woods' family sued the city in a lawsuit that was settled for $400,000.

Kaepernick, who at the time played for the San Francisco 49ers, said that after the shooting he and his longtime girlfriend, Nessa Diab, devised a plan that included the launching of a Know Your Rights Camp for youth.

"The discussion happened shortly after the execution of Mario Woods," Kaepernick told Paper in a story posted Tuesday morning.

Kaepernick's kneeling during the national anthem at games during the 2016 season prompted some other NFL players to follow suit and set off a heated national debate over the appropriateness of such demonstrations during the anthem.

The quarterback has previously offered a more general explanation that his silent protests were against racism and police brutality.